Washington:

United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI, which is investigating the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at the Republican rally in Pennsylvania last month, has revealed that the gunman Thomas Crooks acted alone.

The FBI said it has found no evidence of any foreign involvement in the case. The investigating agency however said that the motive behind the assassination attempt still remains unclear.

Sharing details about the gunman’s search history, the FBI said, Thomas Crooks, 20, has varied ideologies. They also also shared photos of the weapon used and said they had found Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs in his vehicle.

Speaking about Thomas Crooks’ search history, the FBI revealed that he had searched more than 60 times for information about the Republican presidential candidate, as well as his then-rival, Democratic candidate and President Joe Biden. The gunman’s online searches date as far back as September 2023. After nearly a year-long extensive search, the gunman chose to register for the Trump rally.

The FBI explained that the gunman had mounted a “sustained, detailed effort” to attack a major gathering of some sort before finally deciding to target the Republican presidential candidate at the rally in Pennsylvania in July.

“We saw a sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some events, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,” Kevin Rojek, the FBI’s top official in western Pennsylvania, told reporters.

Mr Rojek further said that Crooks became “hyper-focused” on the Trump rally when it was announced “and looked at it as a target of opportunity.”

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump took place on July 13, 2024 when the former president was addressing a Republican campaign rally in Buttler, Pennsylvania. The shooter Thomas Crooks, was from Bethel Park, a village 40 miles south of where Trump’s rally was held.

Crooks fired multiple gunshots from an AR-15-style rifle during the rally, of which, one grazed Donald Trump’s ear. The shooter planted himself on the roof of a manufacturing plant located around 130 yards away from the stage at Butler Farm Show grounds. While Donald Trump survived the assassination bid with the US Secret Service agents storming the stage to protect him, the shooting led to the death of one civilian and caused severe injuries to two others.

Thomas Crooks was shot dead at the rally by the US Secret Service Counter Sniper Team. His motive remains unknown to this date.
 

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle enters a House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing on the security lapses that allowed an attempted assassination of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said July 22 that her agency failed in its mission to protect former President Donald Trump, as lawmakers of both major political parties demanded during a highly contentious congressional hearing that she resign over security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and open fire at a campaign rally.

Ms. Cheatle was berated for hours by Republicans and Democrats, repeatedly angering lawmakers by evading questions about the investigation during the first hearing over the July 13 assassination attempt. Ms. Cheatle called the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades and vowed to “move heaven and earth” to get to the bottom of what went wrong and make sure there’s no repeat of it.

“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” she told lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

Ms. Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally. She also revealed that the roof from which Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. Ms. Cheatle said she apologised to Mr. Trump in a phone call after the assassination attempt.

Yet, Ms. Cheatle remained defiant that she was the “right person” to lead the Secret Service, even as she said she takes full responsibility the security lapses. When Republican Rep. Nancy Mace suggested she begin drafting her resignation letter from the hearing room, Ms. Cheatle responded, “No, thank you.”

In a rare moment of unity for the often divided committee, the Republican chairman, Rep. James Comer, and its top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin, issued a letter calling on Cheatle to step down. The White House didn’t immediately comment on whether President Joe Biden still has confidence in Ms. Cheatle after her testimony.

How could the gunman get so close to Trump?

Democrats and Republicans were united in their exasperation as Ms. Cheatle said she didn’t know or couldn’t answer numerous questions more than a week after the shooting that left one spectator dead. At one point, Ms. Mace used profanity as she accused Ms. Cheatle of lying and dodging questions, prompting calls for lawmakers to show “decorum.”

Lawmakers pressed Ms. Cheatle on how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded, and why Trump was allowed to take the stage after local law enforcement had identified Crooks as suspicious.

“It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States. Regardless of party, there need to be answers,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York.

Role of local law enforcement

Ms. Cheatle acknowledged that Crooks had been seen by local law enforcement before the shooting with a rangefinder, a small device resembling binoculars that hunters use to measure the distance from a target. She said the Secret Service would never have taken Mr. Trump onto the stage if it had known there was an “actual threat.” Local law enforcement took a photo of Crooks and shared it after seeing him acting suspiciously, but he wasn’t deemed to be a “threat” until seconds before he opened fire, she said.

“An individual with a backpack is not a threat,” she said. “An individual with a rangefinder is not a threat.”

Ms. Cheatle said local enforcement officers were inside the building from which Crooks fired. But when asked why there were no agents on the roof or if the Secret Service used drones to monitor the area, Ms. Cheatle said she is still waiting for the investigation to play out, prompting groans and outbursts from members on the committee.

“Director Cheatle, because Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent,” said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio. “If he were killed, you would look culpable.”

Lawmakers ask Cheatle to resign

Rep. Ro Khanna, one of the Democrats who joined the calls for Ms. Cheatle to resign, noted that the Secret Service director who presided over the agency when there was an attempted assassination of former Republican President Ronald Reagan later stepped down.

“The one thing we have to have in this country are agencies that transcend politics and have the confidence of independents, Democrats, Republicans, progressives and conservatives,” Mr. Khanna said, adding that the Secret Service was no longer one of those agencies.

Mr. Trump was wounded in the ear, a former Pennsylvania fire chief was killed and two other attendees were injured when Crooks opened fire with an AR-style rifle shortly after Trump began speaking.

Ms. Cheatle said the agency hopes to have its internal investigation completed in 60 days. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has separately appointed a bipartisan, independent panel to review the assassination attempt, while the department’s inspector general has opened three investigations.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan delegation of about a dozen members of the House Committee on Homeland Security toured the shooting site Monday. The lawmakers said they were the first group outside law enforcement to climb onto the roof where the shooter positioned himself.

Authorities have been hunting for clues into what motivated Crooks but have not found any ideological bent that could help explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Trump, Biden and other senior government officials and found that he had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Conventional as well as Trump’s appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive order.

Former U.S. President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 16, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Iran on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, rejected what it called “malicious” accusations by U.S. media implicating it in an attempt to kill former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Also read: From Lincoln to Trump: A long history of shootings in U.S. Presidential politics

Iran “strongly rejects any involvement in the recent armed attack against Trump,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said, while Iran’s mission to the United Nations called accusations of a previous plot to kill the former president as “unsubstantiated and malicious”.

Earlier report from AP:

A threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before Saturday’s campaign rally, but it was unrelated to the assassination attempt on the Republican presidential nominee, two U.S. officials said Tuesday, as law enforcement warned of the potential for more violence inspired by the shooting.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said officials have been tracking Iranian threats against Mr. Trump administration officials for years, dating back to the last administration. Mr. Trump ordered the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.

Two days after surviving an attempted assassination, former President Donald Trump appeared triumphantly at the Republican National Convention’s opening night with a bandage over his right ear, the latest compelling scene in a presidential campaign already defined by dramatic turns.

GOP delegates cheered wildly when Mr. Trump appeared onscreen backstage and then emerged in the arena, visibly emotional, as musician Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA.” That was hours after the convention had formally nominated the former president to head the Republican ticket in November against President Joe Biden.

Also read | Trump assassination bid derails Biden’s counter-polarisation strategy

Trump did not address the hall — with his acceptance speech scheduled for Thursday — but smiled silently and occasionally waved as Greenwood sang. He eventually joined his newly announced running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, to listen to the night’s remaining speeches, often with a subdued expression and muted reactions uncharacteristic for the unabashed showman

The raucous welcome underscored the depth of the crowd’s affection for the man who won the 2016 nomination as an outsider, at odds with the party establishment, but now has vanquished all Republican rivals, silenced most GOP critics and commands loyalty up and down the party ranks.

“We must unite as a party, and we must unite as a nation,” said Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley, Trump’s handpicked party leader, as he opened Monday’s primetime national convention session. “We must show the same strength and resilience as President Trump and lead this nation to a greater future.”

But Whatley and other Republican leaders made clear that their calls for harmony did not extend to Biden and Democrats, who find themselves still riven by worries that the 81-year-old question is not up to the job of defeating Trump.

“Their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people,” said Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, welcoming the party to his battleground state, which Trump won in 2016 but lost to Biden four years ago.

Saturday’s shooting at a Pennsylvania rally, where Trump was injured and one man died, were clearly in mind, but the proceedings were celebratory — a stark contrast to the anger and anxiety that had marked the previous few days. Some delegates chanted “fight, fight, fight” — the same words that Trump was seen shouting to the crowd as the Secret Service ushered him off the stage, his fist raised and face bloodied.

“We should all be thankful right now that we are able to cast our votes for President Donald J. Trump after what took place on Saturday,” said New Jersey state Sen. Michael Testa as he announced all of his state’s 12 delegates for Trump.

When Trump cleared the necessary number of delegates, video screens in the arena read “OVER THE TOP” while the song “Celebration” played and delegates danced and waved Trump signs. Throughout the voting, delegates flanked by “Make America Great Again” signs applauded as state after state voted their support for a second Trump term.

Multiple speakers invoked religious imagery to discuss Trump and the assassination attempt.

“The devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle,” said Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. “But an American lion got back up on his feet!”

Wyoming delegate Sheryl Foland was among those who adopted the “fight” chant after seeing Trump survive Saturday in what she called “monumental photos and video.”

“We knew then we were going to adopt that as our chant,” added Foland, a child trauma mental health counselor. “Not just because we wanted him to fight, and that God was fighting for him. We thought, isn’t it our job to accept that challenge and fight for our country?”

“It’s bigger than Trump,” Foland said. “It’s a mantra for our country.”

Another well-timed development boosted the mood on the convention floor Monday: The federal judge presiding over Trump’s classified documents case dismissed the prosecution because of concerns over the appointment of the prosecutor who brought the case, handing the former president a major court victory.

Trump’s campaign chiefs designed the convention to feature a softer and more optimistic message, focusing on themes that would help a divisive leader expand his appeal among moderate voters and people of color.

On a night devoted to the economy, delegates and a national TV audience heard from speakers the Trump campaign pitched as “everyday Americans” — a single mother talking about inflation, a union member who identified himself as a lifelong Democrat now backing Trump, a small business owner, among others.

Featured speakers also included Black Republicans who have been at the forefront of the Trump campaign’s effort to win more votes from a core Democratic constituency.

U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas said rising grocery and energy prices were hurting Americans’ wallets and quoted Ronald Reagan in calling inflation “the cruelest tax on the poor.” Hunt argued Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t seem to understand the problem.

“We can fix this disaster,” Hunt said, by electing Trump and sending “him right back to where he belongs, the White House.”

Scott, perhaps the party’s most well-known Black lawmaker, declared: “America is not a racist country.”

Republicans hailed Vance’s selection as a key step toward a winning coalition in November.

Trump announced his choice of his running mate as delegates were voting on the former president’s nomination Monday. The young Ohio senator first rose to national attention with his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which told of his Appalachian upbringing and was hailed as a window into the parts of working-class America that helped propel Trump.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who had been considered a potential vice presidential pick, said in a post on X that Vance’s “small town roots and service to country make him a powerful voice for the America First Agenda.”

Yet despite calls for harmony, two of the opening speakers at Monday’s evening session — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson — are known as some of the party’s most incendiary figures.

Robinson, speaking recently during a church service in North Carolina, discussed “evil” people who he said threatened American Christianity. “Some folks need killing,” he said then, though he steered clear of such rhetoric at the convention stage.

Trump’s nomination came on the same day that Biden sat for another national TV interview the president sought to demonstrate his capacity to serve another four years despite continued worries within his own party.

Biden told ABC News that he made a mistake recently when he told Democratic donors the party must stop questioning his fitness for office and instead put Trump in a “bullseye.” Republicans have circulated the comment aggressively since Saturday’s assassination attempt, with some openly blaming Biden for inciting the attack on Trump’s life.

The president’s admission was in line with his call Sunday from the Oval Office for all Americans to ratchet down political rhetoric. But Biden maintained Monday that drawing contrasts with Trump, who employs harsh and accusatory language, is a legitimate part of a presidential contest.

Inside the arena in Milwaukee, Republicans did not dial back their attacks on Biden, at one point playing a video that mocked the president’s physical stamina and mental acuity.

They alluded often to the “Biden-Harris administration” and took regular digs at Vice President Kamala Harris — a not-so-subtle allusion to the notion that Biden could step aside in favor of his second-in-command.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage during a rally after an assisation attempt on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images via AFP

As he survived an assassination attempt by a whisker in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, Republican Donald J. Trump’s image underwent an abrupt makeover. From defending charges of being an instigator and an authoritarian-in-waiting, he will now be seen as a target of political violence.

Mr. Trump’s defiant response in the face of death with his fist raised against the backdrop of an American flag could blunt his Democrat rival Joe Biden’s strategy of a counter polarisation, and reinforce his messianic claims. The bid on Mr. Trump’s life could derail the wobbly script that Mr. Biden struggled to put together after his meltdown in the presidential debate on June 27.

Also Read : Trump rally shooting LIVE

Mr. Trump is seen as a divisive figure of U.S. politics, but Mr. Biden’s re-election bid is also premised on polarisation. With the Democrat base itself conflicted over his politics, Mr. Biden has raised the decibel on rhetoric on domestic and international questions to unify his party. All that adds up to a very elementary claim that Mr. Trump would be worse.

On two polarising domestic questions that can unite the progressives, Mr. Biden has raised the stakes since the debate — gun control and abortion decontrol. The Biden campaign has sought to corner Mr. Trump on both questions. The battleground States that turned by narrow margins in 2016, and 2020, are being addressed on these two questions which would not only charge up the Democrat base but also potentially swing women voters from the Republican side too. Against the backdrop of his accelerating gaffe train, Mr. Biden amplified his messaging on these two questions, contrasting himself with Mr. Trump in stark terms.

‘Washington Playbook’

But this has not stopped the chatter about his fitness to run for another term. In fact, it is growing into a clamour, being repeated by Democrat seniors and American strategists across the political divide. Mr. Biden has sought to talk up the Russia-China axis in recent weeks — though he mistook Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for ‘President Putin’.

Mr. Trump’s first term had significantly disrupted what former President Barack Obama had described as ‘Washington Playbook,’ — the standard, usually militarised response to most global events. By confronting China and appearing friendly to Russia, Mr. Trump’s first term had disrupted this playbook.

Mr. Trump’s first term institutionalised rivalry with China in U.S. strategy, and Mr. Biden turned it into a new cold war by talking up the danger of an axis between Russia and China. This focus on Russia and China also helped Mr. Biden skirt two foreign policy setbacks under his watch — the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan without achieving the stated strategic goals and Israel’s war on Gaza that has scattered the Democrats.

On all these points, Mr. Biden’s claim of legitimacy has been that he is the most effective counter to Mr. Trump and his instincts. The stark scenarios that Mr. Biden portrays involve a double barrel polarisation — a U.S.-led world order threatened by an authoritarian Russia-China axis and the U.S. democracy threatened by fascism fuelled by MAGA [Make America Great Again] Republicans.

Mr. Trump is a common factor in Mr. Biden’s campaign narrative, which shows the former President as a stooge of Mr. Putin. The gunman in Pennsylvania has not merely dismantled this grand narrative of Mr. Biden’s claim of his own inevitability despite his infirmities but also reinforced the talking points of Mr. Trump.

Trump’s narrative

Mr. Trump has always claimed that he is a victim of a deep state conspiracy that undermined his first presidency, and thwarted his re-election in 2020. He has also, repeatedly, alluded to “a divine plan” in his politics — a theme that got an instant boost in social media chatter after his miraculous escape from the bullet on Saturday. Mr. Trump’s other talking points — American weakness, leftist conspiracies, and his claims of being a fighter and a true patriot, all fall in place for a perfect storm of a campaign for him on the eve of the Republican National Convention that begins on Monday in Milwaukee.

Mr. Trump presents himself as a strong leader and accuses Mr. Biden of being weak. By appearing unruffled and combative with blood dripping from his bullet injury, Trump can claim to have lived up to his boast. In the coming weeks, he is sure to use this to amplify his politics.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump reacts after gunfire rang out during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Two witnesses at Donald Trump’s election rally in Pennsylvania, where he was attacked, claimed to have seen the shooter, with one recalling how the gunman moved from roof to roof, apparently scouting for a perfect perch to shoot at the former US President.

The FBI on July 14 identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks, armed with an AR-style rifle, was killed by Secret Service personnel. He fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said.

The gunman was able to get close enough to shoot and injure Trump is seen as a huge failure of the security agencies tasked with providing cover for him ahead of the election.

The gunman was on a rooftop approximately “200 to 250 yards” from where the former US president was addressing his supporters, U.S. media reported.

According to an attendee named Ben Macer, he was up along the fence line and “saw the guy move from roof to roof”, CBS News reported.

Macer further said he told an officer that the shooter was on the roof, approximately “200 to 250 yards” away from where Trump was addressing his supporters.

“When I turned around to go back to where I was, it was when the gunshots started, and then it was just chaos, and we all came running away, and that was that,” he said.

Butler resident Ryan Knight, another witness along the fence line, also said he saw the suspected shooter atop the American Glass Research building, the report said.

“I walked over about 20 minutes before the shooting happened to stand along the fence line where Trump was. As I was doing that, I was right beside the AGR building, which had the shooter on it,” Knight said.

“When I was sitting there, a guy said, ‘Oh God, he had a gun.’ When I looked up, there was a guy on top of the building with an M16 with a blanket, pointing at the president. He starts shooting. Four to five shots rang out. I throw the guy I’m with to the ground. I jump to the ground, I look up, and I see his head get split up from the shot from the Secret Service,” he said.

The Secret Service has confirmed that one attendee was killed and two others were critically injured in the shooting.

“All the cops started flying over, pushing us out, they took my name, witness report, [and] cell phone number to go over what happened because there [weren’t many] eyewitnesses,” Knight said.

“My main thought is why wasn’t the Secret Service on top of AGR? That’s a very big vantage point to shoot at the president. How did that get missed?” Knight asked.

Macer said he did not get a clear look at the alleged shooter, but reiterated that he saw him move from building to building.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

As Europe woke up to the news of the attempted assassination of former U.S. President Donald Trump, its leaders took to social media to condemn the attack.

The U.K.’s new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer said he was “appalled” by the attack.

“Political violence in any form has no place in our societies and my thoughts are with all the victims of this attack,” Mr Starmer wrote on social media site X.

“My thoughts are with President Donald Trump, the victim of an assassination attempt,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote. “ It is a tragedy for our democracies. France shares the shock and indignation of the American people,” he said.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the attack “despicable”.

“Political violence has no place in a democracy,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“My thoughts and prayers are with President Donald Trump in these dark hours, “ Hungarian Prime Minister and Trump ally, Viktor Orban said.